The most expensive ticket for this game at Emirates for the Champions League = £94.50

The most expensive ticket for the return Champions League game vs Arsenal at the Alianz Arena = £86.00

The £96.70 figure is unrealistic. There are some very cheap season tickets, around £100, as there are for every Bundesliga club, but they're really hard to get. Even at Second BL clubs there can be a waiting list. The likelihood is you'd be paying £400-£500, which isn't bad. But, factor in another £80 per Champions League game. That brings the price up to about £700, assuming they get to the second round.

I'm a Red Sox fan and because of their sell out rate to get a ticket at face value is pretty impossible and you basically "need to know a guy" to get one. Cheapest I ever payed was $75. Payed $110 for a Celtics ticket, can't find Bruins tickets this year for cheaper than $175 (worth having I should say) and the ceiling is MUCH MUCH higher. The fact you get Bayern season tickets in that beautiful stadium is only £97 makes me want to shit myself, the prices you guys have in Europe are amazing, feel fortunate.

Actually, not anymore, now that they're back to mid 90s "we'll give it a shot but I doubt we'll make the playoffs" status. You can usually get tickets a few weeks in advance for games that aren't against the Yankees, though not always great spots. I recommend the first base line, second deck standing room - if you get there when the gates open you have a bar to lean on and a great view.

edit: that's where I was for the "Football at Fenway" thing they did last summer with Roma and Liverpool, great view.

As a Red Sox, Pats, and Bruins fan I can agree to this 100%. I am lucky enough that my father has a connection that can get tickets for almost any game. You can get lucky and grab cheap tickets once in a great while but it is difficult. Last Sox game I went to was Yankee's Red Sox on my 21st Bday behind home plate. Tickets were about $220 each

I went to a Yankees/Red Sox game at Fenway this past year for 40 bucks a ticket. Seats were down the first base side about 15-20 rows up. I know this was a down year for the Red Sox but I think you might not be looking in the right places.

It's a license with the club/team to buy season tickets at a designated seat location for a one-time fee (usually thousands of dollars). As an example, my family has season tickets to the Baltimore Ravens. They're located about ten rows up from the 5 yard line. We basically own the right (PSL) to buy season tickets at those four specific seats for as long as we want them.

There are some positives, like the ability to sell the PSL to another person at profit and the seats will always be yours so long as you pay for them. The negatives are that you are basically paying for the right to pay for tickets. You also forfeit the license if you stop buying season tickets.

I pay $220 for my season supporters tickets for the Chicago Fire. That is the cheapest ticket available, standing behind the goal. Field-side tickets go for $3000 a season.

Once you jump into bigger sports, which would be a better comparison to top level soccer in England, Spain, Germany, etc....it gets even more expensive.

For my local American football team the Indianapolis colts, season tickets run at the absolute cheapest, $400 dollars for endline nosebleed seats. And that is after paying rights to purchase the tickets, and waiting for years on a wait list. And that only gets you 8 games a year.

Wanting to buy a ticket on the secondary market to any decent team in the NFL? You're looking at roughly $100 a ticket just to get into the stadium.

I went to a Mets game last year for $5, bought the ticket at the window right before the first pitch. NY Red Bulls tickets can be as low as $15 and then it's often easy to move to anywhere you want within the stadium if it's not a big game.

A family close to me had season tickets to A&M for most of the last 8 years or so. Several months after the SEC move they were informed that they wouldn't get the chance to retain their seats. I don't want to know what those seats (which honestly weren't great to begin with) cost now with all the insanity around JFF/the SEC in general. I'm glad I still have a lot of friends and my sister there so I can still get student tickets.

For the gigantic schools with a big history in college football, it's absurd. I'll use Tennessee as an example because I'm familiar with their system. You make a gigantic donation to get on the waiting list, where you might never actually get seats. You donate yearly to stay on the list. Once you get the chance to buy tickets, you have to pay a ridiculous amount, and continue to donate each year.

The difference is that (no offence, I played for an English uni as well) if you were really good, you would have played academy, and by the time you were old enough for uni have been playing reserves or on loan to a lower division side, in which case people would in fact have been paying to watch an 18 year old kick a ball around.

I didn't say otherwise. But there are legitimate issues with ticket pricing and the post I was replying to (not the OP) did not convey that there still is a large difference in pricing between Bayern and Arsenal.

You are doing exactly what you are accusing the op of here. Taking the most expensive ticket and calculating it like it's the average price. Besides often there are x number of cupmatches included in a season ticket.

Finally even if you do all this you still pay substantially less than the cheapest Arsenal season ticket without any CL matches.

"I can only find a 15 pound/year waiting list for a seasonticket there. So I'll have to use news reports."

They charge £15 a year for the privilege of being on a waiting list. Robbing bastards!

That fact has solved all Arsenal discussion for me. Whichever prick proposed that policy is absolutely the reason why they don't pay 'market rates' for RVP etc. and don't spend the £50m they allegedly have. Arsenal fans, I offer you my sincerest sympathies.

I was thinking the same thing. When I lived in London a few years ago you could get Arsenal tickets for 35-40 pounds. It's still a lot to fork over though, so we'd often go watch the minor PL London clubs. The Valley became a particular favourite, tickets were less than half that of Chelsea or Arsenal, mostly about one third.

That comparison might be just a tad unfair since our games are at a high school football field and we don't actually pay the players anything. But yeah, if I can go watch a game for less than $5 I'm not complaining :3

Let's be honest - the standing area behind the goal is the best way to watch a game. If you've ever been on the Südtribüne in Dortmund or other standing blocks, you don't want a family friendly seating area. The atmosphere in the standing areas is way better.

Oh yeah, I completely agree with that (hell, I only ever buy Chelsea tickets behind the goal). But the reason the areas along the length of the pitch are more expensive is because you generally get a better view of the whole match

Never seen better fans come to the etihad than the Dortmund lot. We got battered but I found it hard to look away from the Dortmund fans as they didn't stop singing and even took the piss by singing some of their songs in English. I was a couple of blocks away and no one around me even tried to sing back... Embarrassing night all around really.

It's not that simple. total revenues of Arsenal are barely 1/3(one third) that of Bayerns not to mention player wages at FCB are notoriously lower than most clubs their size. Last time I checked it was hovering somewhere around 50% of TOTAL turnover. Bayern have one of the most lucrative shirt sponsor deals in Deloitte. Bayern basically depends on BIG sponsorships, LOW wages, and enormous commercial sales to maximize revenue while Arsenal really emphasizes matchday revenue(one of the best in the business, actually). bottom line is that Bayern is run typical of a German company. Efficiently. Also Arsenal HAVE quality players but are always a day late and a dollar short replacing big name players that leave like Fabregas, Henry, RVP, Hleb, Viera, Overmars, Francis Jeffers(hah), and arguably Anelka. Another problem is that they rely on the transfer market to MAKE money. WHich isn't that bad of a strategy if you play it right. It works for Porto because Porto have a fantastic scouting system. Arsenal less so.

Sorry this post is long, rambling, and out of order but TDLR; Arsenal rely on ticket sales for a large part of their revenue, Bayern don't.

It's not an approach every team in the world can take though. Bayern are undoubtedly the biggest and most famous club in Germany, and one of the biggest in the world. They've won the Champions League 4 times to Arsenal's none. That's why they can rely on sponsorship and commercial revenue. It's not like Arsenal don't try to maximise their own commercial revenue- the Emirates deal is a brilliant financial package. They're not in a position to exploit the commercial market like Bayern are and thus rely on match-day revenue, as you said.

It isn't like clubs have to choose between either match-day revenue or commercial revenue. Every club in Europe does as much as it can to maximise it's income.

Another reason why it doesn't work for Arsenal. The EPL is just way too competitive to rely so heavily on youths coming through the ranks while City, Chelsea, Man Utd, recently Tottenham, and Liverpool(hah)are snapping up Europe's ready talent. Buying young isn't bad but waiting for them to develop into players may cost Arsenal dearly in the short term. I know it's Arsene's style but he needs to wake up and smell the Europa League. IF he can realize he's going to sit in fifth place unless they can become competitive again by buying short term replacements instead of long term "investment players"(to maybe sell anyway). But on the other hand maybe this isn't Arsene's fault? Five will get you ten it's the board and Arsene is just the scapegoat. Either way, the strategy of Arsenals transfer market dealings needs to change.

also Porto can sign Brazilians who then take Portuguese citizenship (and EU passports) making it easier to sell them to countries where they would require a work permit if they weren't European citizens.

Crippled is the complete wrong word. They are paying structured repayments on the loan they used to pay for construction but even with those repayments they still managed to report a pre-tax profit of £36.6 million last September. Even with loan repayments their finances are in very good shape.

If Bayern ran their club just like a German company they would at least double the prices of their tickets because the demand is so high. They have sold out every single home game since the Allianz Arena opened in 2005 (last time one of their away games wasn't sold out was in 2007).

Bayern Munich is by far the most popular club in Germany, a country of 82 million where football is by far the most popular sports. The people of Munich have the second highest average income in all of Germany, so the money is there. The cheapest ticket for Bayern games is 15 Euros and I claim they could sell out every game even if it was 30 Euros. All of Bayern's home tickets are sold out months before a season even starts and they could sell way more tickets than what's available. There were 500,000 ticket requests for the game against Dortmund last season, which means Bayern could have sold out the stadium about 7 times.

The average price for a Bundesliga ticket in Germany is a little over 20 Euros, while it's roughly twice as much in Spain or England. Simultaneously I would estimate that the purchasing power in England is about equal and lower in Spain, while the German population is higher and fewer games are played each season.

Basically there is a huge demand and the Germans have enough money to pay the same price as people pay in England or Spain.

All the games are sold out and there are waiting lists (Excess demand)

People are prepared to pay more than the retail price (see prices on ebay for example)

Economically the football club market is nothing like perfect competition (If Bayern raise their prizes I'm not going to start watching Dortmund games)

Bayern even sell all 71,000 tickets in games against teams like Fürth or 3rd league teams in the cup

So I think it is a fair assumption to make that the Allianz Arena would still sell out at higher prices and tickets are actually under-prized.

Also selectively raising prizes would be pretty easy given that there is quite a good system for price discrimination.

The fact that the cheapest tickets are the ones which have by far the highest excess demand is a pretty good indicator that especially those tickets are too cheap. The problem with raising the prices of these tickets is the massive lobbying by fanclubs and ultras (who are the only ones who can actually get these tickets).

I think it is fair to say that carrot-man is right, i.e. that if the club was run like an average German firm prices would be (significantly) higher, most likely resulting in higher revenue.

or actually build a nice mall where they can put their good players on display for rich large clubs to come and fetch... maybe even with a built in kindergarten where you can leave your talented 10 year old and in a couple of years you get your moneys worth.

94.50 is nothing! American Football and Hockey tickets in N.America are easily 200 USD/CAD (around what the arsenal/bayern ticket is in pounds) and that's for an average league game. nowhere near the entertainment value of watching 2 top European Clubs play a champions league match. If I was in Europe I would gladly pay 95 pounds or Euros or Hungarian Forints or whatever else you guys use over there to see either of those 2 teams play.

Bundesliga clubs and EPL clubs get their funding differently. Most EPL clubs despite sky money and sponsorship get the majority of their revenue from ticket sales. It's the other way round in Bundesliga (large chuk comes from sponsor and tv) so it's easily to charge fans less. Heard this over the radio from a German journalist.

Also heard if you're a referee in Germany you can get into games for free, they have tickets reserved for them. So apparently a lot of people get the qualification just for the free seats, but there is a rush for them

Yeah I honestly don't care one way or another. This is just another empty controversy generated by hysterical media and hypocritical, self-serving Watford opponents. I am curious what your squad might look like should you earn promotion.

If you're paying anywhere between £60 - £100 per ticket per game only to be fucking about in 5th place and losing in the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, you'd be pissed off as an Arsenal. I know I would be.

I get that the fans are always expected to support the team and players no matter what, but if we accept that football is a business nowadays where the fuck is the customer service and quality assurance?

Debatable whether the Premier League is the strongest league anymore. Also Arsenal are one of the richest clubs in the world, with a huge fanbase and a world class stadium, they ought to be doing better. When teams like Swansea and Bradford can reach the finals, teams like Portsmouth can win FA Cups, even Liverpool still win trophies and reach finals, just not the league. You have to start asking questions. Arsenal is a big club whether people want to admit it or not.

The fact that We're in the final, that Liverpool still win cups and that Portsmouth won the FA cup proves the strength of the league. A strong league isn't a league where the top few teams dick everyone below them 4-0 consistently. Bradford being our opponents demonstrates 3 parts fluke (no offence Bradford) but 1 part how strong the entire football pyramid is, and the strength of grassroots football in England.

A 4th tier team making a final in Spain would just be unheard of, not because their top teams are so good but because their 3rd tier is so bad (the 3rd is comparable in Spain becuase it contains several regional leagues). I spent last year watching one of the 3rd tier leagues there, and I've watched Swansea in League Two and League One. I think most clubs, as they are now, would be good enough to push for the Spanish second tier.

EDIT: What my point is, is that the mid table of the Premier League is better than the midtable of La Liga. The Europa League makes this fuzzy, but only because Spanish teams try to win it while English teams often treat it as a development cup.

Went to both games this week, and spent around £120 for both (lucky got a season ticket for travel and I don't buy the food). I don't go often because of the price of games have to save up. It is annoying to see peopel online complain about home fans not supporting squad enough. Though it is depressing to see a 'sold out' game like last night and there were a number of empty seats. Either touts or season ticket holders who didn't put up the spare on exchange website. Club does treat share fans like outsiders in the AGM meetings from reading reports.

Arsenal ladies start playing in March and their season ticket is £35. Will be getting that to fill out the days between seeing the mens team when i can afford £40+ per game.

Me and too high school classmates got season tickets for 1,5 seasons (as our club moved to a new stadium TT Arena mid year) for 400 TL, which makes about €150. A fucking year and a half, friendlies and euro games included.

Good if you can get them. Only 38k of the 71k seats are available for season tickets. Game day tickets are more expensive, though still a bargain compared to Arsenal or any BPL club, really. Hard to argue that the product is any better.

There's a slight disconnect here I hope one of you could help me out with...
I've followed this ticket price movement for a while, and still keep in touch with some friends living in Merseyside. On the one hand, the "football without fans is nothing" theme is pervasive, yet LFC's summer began with a play on the Warrior theme, "we come not to pay" (Warrior = we come not to play).
Player wages undoubtedly increase year-to-year, fans bitch when Dempsey isn't offered the extra 2 million pounds (or whatever it was), etc.
I suppose my question then, is the heart of this movement that the club should be financially stronger as to not rely on supporters money? (In other words, buying el nino for 20m and selling to CFC for 50?) Or am I just a blind capitalist American?